THE PINES 



FROM the earliest knowledge of American forests the 

 several species of Pine have held first place in the estima- 

 tion of lumber manufacturers, dealers, woodworkers, con- 

 sumers, and the general public. No other lumber-producing 

 trees have played so important a part in the economic and 

 industrial advancement of this country. Until recently there 

 has been more pine lumber annually manufactured in the 

 United States than of all other kinds combined ; and even 

 now, after our pine forests have been greatly reduced in 

 area and productiveness, the amount manufactured in the 

 United States in 1908 was forty-eight per cent of the total 

 cut. 1 



All Pines are not alike valuable. Out of thirty-seven 

 species indigenous to the United States not one half of that 

 number can be deemed of sufficient importance to justify 

 any attempt at cultivation. Really but few of them are of 

 such economic character as to warrant it. They all belong 

 to the botanical class known as " conifers," or cone-bear- 

 ing trees, the cone being composed of a woody stem covered 

 with scales that overlap each other, inclosing the seeds at 

 the base of each scale, the fruit of all of them requiring 

 two years to mature. Another distinctive feature is that 

 their leaves are in the form of needles, clustered and held 

 together by a sheath and are never shed at the end of the 

 first year, sometimes not under three years, and hence 

 are called "evergreens." In all but one species the leaves 

 are in clusters in the sheath, ranging from two to five in 

 each; the exception being the "Nut" or "Pinyon" Pine 

 (Pinus monophylla) of the Pacific Slope, which has a single 

 leaf. It is of no value as a timber tree. 



A correct distinction would place our commercial Pines 



1 Forest Product* of the United States, 1908, No. 10, Bureau of the Census. 



